Talks About Verstappen's Rant Silenced By Red Bull's Chief Engineer: 'I Really Don't Mind'

Thursday, 15 August 2024 at 14:00

Updated at Thursday, 15 August 2024 at 14:48

Red Bull Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan shared his view on Max Verstappen's controversial radio messages to his team during the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 13th round of the season at Hungaroring near Budapest in Hungary was not a good race for triple World Champion Max Verstappen, who let it be known through overly aggressive radio messages to his team.

One of such messages came after the second round of pit stops when the 26-year-old started pushing his tires too much and his race engineer warned him he might be pushing them too hard. Verstappen snapped at him:

“"No mate, don't give me that bulls**t now! You guys gave me this f**king strategy, OK? I'm trying to rescue what's left. For f**k's sake."”

Many fans, experts, and former F1 drivers have criticized the Dutchman after the race. Martin Brunle suggested he was disappointed by his behavior, while in 1996, Champion Damon Hill suggested that the Red Bull Racing driver should apologize to his team.

What is most important, though, is that people inside the team from Milton Keynes themselves viewed the radio messages. Red Bull Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan said, as per Motorsportweek.com:

“"Last year and at races this year, he's reached a level the others have thus far yet to match. And as such, if he feels that we are not attaining his high bar, we can expect those kinds of comments."”

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“"I don't really have a strong view on how he presents it to us, whether the tone is pleasant, unpleasant. Look at it as if he is sensing that we are not getting the most out of ourselves as a team."”

This is similar to what Karun Chandhok (former F1 driver and Sky Sport's commentator) said after talking to some Red Bull employees one week after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Chandhok learned from engineers that Verstappen sets the bar as high for everyone else as he does for himself, which pushes the team to perform better. Monaghan continued:

“"If he didn't say anything, would it push us to do anything differently? Maybe, maybe not. But in making those comments, maybe view it as constructive criticism rather than a rant or anything like that."”

“"He wants the best for himself, he is a fairly significant figure in this team and he has probably the most public speaking platform."”

The chief engineer added that he doesn't mind how the information is put to him at the end of the day. And if he wanted to say anything to the Dutchman about it, it would be private.

“"So, thick skin or not, I don't mind. I think you have to try and maintain Kipling's poem If-. You just got to take what he's saying as constructive criticism, not a personal insult, and move on with it."”

“"[Verstappen is] fighting his corner, he wants the best for himself, he wants the best for us. How he puts it across, I really don't mind. If I'm gonna say anything to him, it will be in private!"”